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Post by TsarSamuil on May 30, 2009 15:12:16 GMT -5
US, Russian officials hail opening of chemical weapons destruction plant.
JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press Writer
5:42 AM PDT, May 29, 2009
SHCHUCHYE, Russia (AP) — Rising out of the rolling fields and tree-lined country roads of southern Siberia is a complex of hulking metal buildings, piping and high-security fencing.
Its purpose? To cope with one of the nastiest legacies of the Cold War.
On Friday, Russian and American officials formally dedicated the high-tech plant, built with the help of $1 billion from the U.S. and designed to destroy about 2 million chemical weapons shells.
The opening was a major step toward disposing of Russia's huge stockpile of Soviet-era chemical weapons, and a rare example of cooperation between two nations that still don't quite trust one another two decades after the Soviet collapse.
The 25-structure complex, the size of a small town, was largely funded by the U.S. under a program called the Cooperative Threat Reduction initiative, launched a year after the Soviet collapse. It is meant to help Russia cope with its vast Cold War arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican who helped author much of the legislation that set up the program, came to the plains of Siberia Friday to speak at the dedication of the building, the program's largest single project.
"The path to peace and prosperity for both Russia and the United States depends on how we resolve the threats posed by the arsenals built to fight World War III," Lugar said. "Thankfully that confrontation never came. But today we must ensure that the weapons are never used, and never fall into the hands of those who would do harm to us or others."
Red, white and blue balloons were tied to the buildings, and a two-story-high photograph of President Dmitry Medvedev hung on the wall of one of them. Medvedev did not attend.
In his speech, Lugar referred in passing to recent tensions between Moscow and Washington, which peaked during last year's brief war between Russia and the former Soviet nation of Georgia, a U.S. ally.
"The United States and Russia have too much at stake and too many common interests to allow our relationship to drift toward conflict. Both of our nations have been the victim of terrorism that has deeply influenced our sense of security," he said.
The weapons at Shchuchye, loaded with nerve gases including VX and sarin, have a cataclysmic potential for terrorist attacks. If set off in a tightly packed area, each could kill tens of thousands of people. Many of them are small enough to fit in a briefcase.
Russia, as a signatory of the international Chemical Weapons Convention, is obliged to eliminate its vast stores of Class I weapons — chemicals that have no use other than in arms. Moscow already has destroyed about 30 percent of its stockpile, according to the Russian Munitions Agency.
"In this context, Shchuchye is the most important facility allowing us to fulfill this task," said Viktor Khristenko, the Russian minister of industry.
But the Shchuchye facility significantly boosts destruction capacity. Russian officials claim it will allow the country to meet its treaty obligations of destroying all chemical weapons by 2012, although Lugar said that goal probably won't be met.
Nonetheless, the opening — which follows preliminary destruction work that began in March — is significant because of the dangers posed by the weapons. Lugar said some of the shells at Shchuchye could kill 80,000 people if deployed in a stadium.
The opening of the plant comes at a symbolically important time, as Russia and the U.S. try to agree on a replacement to the START nuclear arms reduction treaty that expires at the end of this year. It also comes as both countries tentatively try to repair relations that have deteriorated in recent years.
The project stands as a model of long-term cooperation, but underlines the frequent difficulties that Washington runs into with Moscow.
Delays in opening the plant came as disagreements arose over the type of munitions to be destroyed and how to eliminate them. The U.S. General Accounting Office says the hunt for a Russian subcontractor to install equipment at a reasonable cost was alone responsible for pushing the project back a year.
The weapons to be destroyed at Shchuchye contain in total about 6,000 tons (5,460 metric tons) of nerve agent including sarin and VX; in all, that's about 14 percent of the chemical weapons that Russia is committed to destroy.
The initial destruction capacity is roughly 935 tons (850 metric tons) a year, but the figure is expected to double when a second building at the complex comes into operation at the end of the year.
The welded shells are to be drilled, then drained of their deadly agents. The chemicals will be neutralized then turned into bitumen salt mass, a solid waste that is considered mildly dangerous. That waste is to be stored in drums in concrete-lined bunkers situated above the groundwater level.
The complex, which sprawls across some 250 acres (100 hectares) is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the buildings where the shells are stored. The weapons will be transported there on a specially built railroad.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Dec 17, 2009 10:47:41 GMT -5
Russia meets obligations for chemical weapons decommissioning.
Russia remains on schedule in fulfilling its commitments under the chemical weapons convention, and has met the end-of-year deadline for reducing its stockpiles by 45% from the 1990s level, a government official said.
"In line with Russia's federal program for destroying chemical weapons, in spite of all the difficulties in implementing this program, Russia will have fulfilled its obligations under the third stage of the Chemical Weapons Convention as of December 31, 2009," Deputy Russian economics minister Oleg Savelyev said.
In November the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that Russia had reached this year's target of 45% ahead of schedule.
The ministry said Russia is committed to destroying its entire declared arsenal "within the timeframe established by the Convention."
Russia signed the Chemical Weapons Convention banning the development, production, stockpiling, transfer, and use of chemical arms in 1993, and ratified it in 1997. The country aims to destroy its entire arsenal by 2012.
Russia destroyed 1% of its chemical weapon stockpiles in 2003 and had destroyed 20% as of 2007.
The country has allocated $7.18 billion from the federal budget for the implementation of the program, and has so far built five chemical weapon destruction plants - in Gorny (Saratov Region), Kambarka (Republic of Udmurtia), Nizhny Novgorod, the Maradykovo complex (Kirov Region), and Siberia's Kurgan Region. Another two are under construction.
Western nations pledged at the 2002 Kananaskis G8 summit to help Russia financially and technologically to destroy or convert its chemical weapons and production facilities as part of the Global Partnership against the Proliferation of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction.
The United States has contributed over $1 billion for the construction of the Shchuchye facility in the south Urals.
MOSCOW, December 17 (RIA Novosti)
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Post by TsarSamuil on Mar 3, 2010 12:48:11 GMT -5
Russia reaffirms commitment to destroy chemical weapons by 2012.
Russia will complete the construction of chemical weapon destruction plants in 2011 and will destroy all chemical weapons stockpiles by 2012, a government official said on Wednesday.
Russia signed the Chemical Weapons Convention banning the development, production, stockpiling, transfer, and use of chemical arms in 1993, and ratified it in 1997. The country has destroyed 18,000 metric tons, or 45% of its chemical weapons stockpiles as of December 2009.
Gen. Nikolai Abroskin, head of the Federal Agency for Special Construction, said during a collegiate meeting at the agency that despite the recent financial crunch Russia would meet its obligations and destroy the remaining 22,000 metric tons of chemical weapons by 2012.
The country has allocated $7.18 billion from the federal budget for the implementation of the program, and has so far built five chemical weapon destruction plants - in Gorny (Saratov Region), Kambarka (Republic of Udmurtia), Nizhny Novgorod, the Maradykovo complex (Kirov Region), and Siberia's Kurgan Region. Another two are under construction.
Abroskin said the completion of chemical weapon destruction facilities remained a priority in 2010.
"We should be able to launch the first stage of the facility in Pochep [Bryansk Region], and second stages of the facilities in Leonidovka [Penza Region] and Shchuchiye [Kurgan Region]...which will allow us to finish the construction of all chemical weapon destruction plants in 2011 and destroy all chemical weapons by 2012 in line with the federal program," he said.
By 2016-2017, Russia aims to finish all the remaining work under the project, including decontamination and equipment dismantlement, the official said.
MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti)
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Post by TsarSamuil on Nov 27, 2010 13:17:24 GMT -5
Russia opens key plant to destroy chemical weapons.
Russia opens its largest plant to destroy chemical weapons, but will miss 2012 deadline.
AP News
NATALIYA VASILYEVA
Nov 26, 2010 11:20 EST
Russia will miss a 2012 deadline for destroying all of its chemical weapons, officials said Friday as they inaugurated a major new plant to dispose of them.
The facility at Pochep, tucked between Ukrainian and Belarussian borders 250 miles southwest of Moscow, is the latest of six plants built in Russia in recent years to dismantle its Cold War-era chemical weapons arsenals — the world's largest. Pochep will process nearly 19 percent of Russia's stockpile, or 7,500 tons of nerve agent used in aircraft-delivered munitions.
The plant, hidden in a dense birch forest, is key for Russia's commitment to destroy all of its chemical weapons by April 2012 as Russia deals with its vast arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
As a signatory of the international Chemical Weapons Convention, the country already has destroyed about half of its chemical weapons, according to Russian officials.
Viktor Kholstov, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade's official in charge of chemical disarmament, said at the plant opening on Friday that Russia honors its commitment on disarmament but it will need two or three more years beyond the previously announced deadline.
The delay had been caused by a shortage of funds in the last two years, he said. Government funding has been scarce while international donors have provided only 60 percent of the expected funding.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a similar warning in August, saying that, because of the global financial crisis, Russia had run into "financial and technical difficulties" that would stretch the time required for completing the disposal of chemical weapons stockpiles by up to three years.
The United States has acknowledged it will miss the deadline, too. Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller said at the United Nations last month that the U.S. had destroyed 78 percent of the chemical weapons stockpiles and is on pace to destroy 90 percent of its arsenal destroyed by April 2012.
Col.-Gen. Valery Kapashin, a military official in charge of storage and elimination of Russia's chemical stockpiles, said Pochep is expected to destroy its stock of chemical weapons by the end of 2014.
The weapons processed at Pochep are loaded with nerve gas such as VX, sarin and soman which can potentially become a lethal weapon if they fall into the hands of terrorists. The first five tons of VX was destroyed at Pochep on Friday.
The munitions are transported from a nearby arsenal to the plant where they are drilled, then a fuel neutralizing their deadly agent is added. The munitions will spend three months in an underground storage before they will be burned in special stoves at the same plant.
"The destruction of these weapons eliminates a potential threat to the population and environment," Kholstov said, describing chemical weapons disarmament as Russia's priority in its foreign and domestic policies.
Unlike other plants where foreign financing was sizable, the Pochep facility was built mainly on government money but with small contributions from Germany and Switzerland.
Switzerland allocated a total of 14.5 million Swiss francs ($14.45 million) for Russia disarmament projects, Stefan Esterman, minister in Switzerland's Russian embassy, said but he could not provide a specific figure for the Pochep facility.
(This version CORRECTS Corrects currency conversion in paragraph 14.)
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Post by TsarSamuil on Aug 10, 2011 14:43:18 GMT -5
Russia claims destroying of over half chemical weapons.
MOSCOW, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Russia has destroyed more than half of its stockpiles of chemical weapons and should have the remainder gone by 2015, a senior official said Wednesday.
So far some 21,000 tons of chemical weapons had been destroyed, Vasily Bogomolov, deputy director of the Federal Special Construction Agency, told reporters.
In line with its international obligations, Russia is supposed to destroy 40,000 tons of its chemical weapons by 2015, said Bogomolov who is responsible for construction of facilities for destroying chemical weapons in Russia.
There are at least six chemical weapon destroying facilities in Russia.
According to the international convention on the prohibition of chemical weapons, Russia should destroy all its chemical weapons by April 29, 2012. But it postponed the deadline to 2015 due to a lack of funding.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Mar 22, 2012 18:24:17 GMT -5
Russia destroys 60 percent of its chemical weapons.
MOSCOW, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Russia had destroyed 60.4 percent, or 24,000 tons, of its chemical weapons by March 1, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said Thursday.
"Our aim is to destroy 100 percent of chemical weapons by 2015," Deputy Minister Georgy Kalamanov said in a statement on the ministry's website.
Kalamanov said six disposal plants were currently being used, with another under construction, adding funding for the program was sufficient.
On Wednesday, State Commission on Chemical Disarmament chairman Mikhail Babich told a delegation from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that Russia stood for thorough destruction of all its chemical weapons stocks.
"We are making maximum efforts to complete this process in the shortest time possible," Babich said.
Moscow says it possesses some 40,000 tons of chemical weapons.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Apr 29, 2012 6:28:51 GMT -5
Russia Destroys 62% of its Chemical Weapons.
07:43 29/04/2012
MOSCOW, April 29 (RIA Novosti)
About 25,000 metric tons of chemical weapons, or 62 percent of Russia’s stockpile, have been destroyed by April 29, the day when the International Chemical Weapons Convention came into force.
In 15 years Russia destroyed about two thirds of its world-largest stockpile of 40,000 metric tons. The goal is to destroy 100 percent of chemical weapons in Russia by 2015.
The 188 states parties to the Convention initially planned to destroy all chemical weapons in the world by 2012. Russia and the United States, who have 40,000 and 27,000 metric tons of chemical weapons, respectively, said they were behind schedule and the deadline was postponed until December 31, 2015.
The U.S. said it had already destroyed about 90 percent of its chemical weapons. The Department of Defense, however, postponed the deadline for destroying the remaining 2,000 metric tons first until 2021 and then until 2023.
As of January 31, 2012, more than 50,000 metric tons of chemical weapons, or 73 percent of the global stockpile, have been destroyed.
The convention came into force on April 29, 1997, and 188 out of 195 UN member states have joined it. Myanmar and Israel are signatories to the treaty, but are yet to ratify it. Only Angola, North Korea, Egypt, Somalia and Syria are still outside the convention.
The countries that officially admitted having chemical weapons are Albania, Libya, Iraq, India, Russia, the United States and South Korea.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Nov 9, 2012 13:52:16 GMT -5
Chemical Weapons ‘Indestructible’ Russia Warns.
MOSCOW, November 8 (RIA Novosti) - Chemical weapons cannot be completely thrown out of the stockpiles of the world’s leading powers even though they are banned, the head of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces, said on Thursday.
The Chemical Weapons Convention, in force since April 29, 1997, has been joined by 188 of 195 UN member states.
“This type of weaponry cannot be completely excluded from the arsenals of warfare because analysis of the multi-billion spending, both in the United States and other Western countries, on the development of new combat agents, which fall under the provisions of the Convention, shows that this work is ongoing,” force commander Maj. Gen. Yevgeny Starkov said in an interview with Rossia 24 TV.
New means of protection against biological agents are being developed in the world, which are essentially dual use technology that can be used to produce new agents, he said.
Some of these developments, especially in the area of genetic engineering, can hinder or neutralize the efforts to counter new agents, the general warned.
He offered no indication of whether that could affect Russia’s obligation to destroy 100 percent of its chemical weapons.
As of May this year, Russia destroyed about 25,000 metric tons of its chemical weapons, or 62 percent of its stockpile. In 15 years Russia has destroyed about two-thirds of its 40,000-metric-ton stockpile, which had been the world's largest. The goal is to destroy 100 percent of the chemical weapons in Russia by 2015.
Russia and the United States have 40,000 and 27,000 metric tons of chemical weapons, respectively. The US said it has destroyed about 90 percent of its chemical weapons. The Department of Defense, however, postponed the deadline for destroying the remaining 2,000 metric tons first until 2021 and then until 2023.
As of January 31, 2012, more than 50,000 metric tons of chemical weapons, or 73 percent of the global stockpile, had been destroyed.
Myanmar and Israel have signed the Convention, but are yet to ratify it. Only Angola, North Korea, Egypt, Somalia and Syria are still outside the Convention. The countries that have officially admitted to having chemical weapons are Albania, Libya, Iraq, India, Russia, the United States and South Korea.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Aug 8, 2013 12:20:59 GMT -5
Russia Destroys Over 75% of Its Chemical Weapons Stockpile.
MOSCOW, August (RIA Novosti) – Russia has destroyed more than 30,000 metric tons of chemical warfare agents, or about 76 percent of its chemical weapons stockpile, Russia’s industry and trade minister said Thursday.
Russia has destroyed more chemical agents than any other of the 180 signees of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, Minister Denis Manturov said while visiting a chemical weapons disposal facility in the Bryansk Region, which borders Ukraine and Belarus.
More than 500 inspections of Russia’s chemical weapons stockpile have been conducted since the convention came into effect, and not a single violation has been detected in this respect, the official added.
Last year, Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Georgy Kalamanov said Russia planned to destroy all of its chemical weapons by 2015.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Nov 26, 2013 14:44:38 GMT -5
Russia destroys three quarters of its chemical weapons stockpiles.
English.news.cn 2013-11-26 23:28:20
MOSCOW, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Russia has destroyed over three quarters of its chemical weapons stockpiles, a Russian official said Tuesday.
"We've got a year of busy work ahead to destroy 100 percent of chemical weapons in Russia," said Mikhail Babich, chairman of Russia's State Commission on Chemical Disarmament.
Russia currently has destroyed 77 percent of its 40,000-ton chemical weapons stockpiles inherited from the Soviet Union, he was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
Moscow ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997 and started destruction work in December 2002. Chemical weapons are being destroyed at six special sites with the seventh under construction.
After all stockpiles are destroyed, those facilities will be converted for peaceful use, said the official.
Russia and the United States are set to complete destruction of their chemical arsenals by the end of 2015.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Apr 14, 2014 14:24:12 GMT -5
OPCW Commends Russia for Destroying Bulk of Its Chemical Weapons Stockpile.
MOSCOW, April 14 (RIA Novosti) – Over three-fourths of Russia’s stockpile of chemical weapons has now been destroyed, the head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Monday.
“This is a significant success, taking into account the complexity and scale of the operation. I look forward to visiting one of the sites where chemical weapons are destroyed on Thursday,” said Üzümcü at a ceremony at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) during which he was awarded an honorary doctorate.
The OPCW chief said the two major countries that have chemical arsenals – Russia and the United States – are “making every effort to implement the plans for destruction of chemical weapons.”
By the end of last year, Russia had destroyed 78 percent of its chemical weapons stockpile, about 40,000 tons. The country is disposing of the weapons at a specially-designed facility and strictly fulfilling its obligations to the international community.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Oct 10, 2014 12:45:02 GMT -5
New Chemical Defense Regiments Formed in Russian Armed Forces.
MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Central Military District (CMD) will complete the formation of two regiments of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense (RChBD) in the Samara Region and the Altay Territory by the end of the year, the district's spokesperson said Thursday.
"CMD is completing the formation of two regiments of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense, which will be deployed in the Samara Region and the Altai Territory by the end of 2014," Col. Yaroslav Roshupkin said.
New RChBD regiments will boost the capabilities of the army contingents deployed in the Samara and Novosibirsk regions in fighting the aftermath of technogenic disasters.
Earlier on Thursday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a conference call with the top military brass of the Armed Forces that the events in the Middle East show that the threat of the use of chemical and biological weapons worldwide still remains.
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Post by TsarSamuil on May 30, 2015 5:14:24 GMT -5
Wow...
Dozens Treated After US Army Sends Live Anthrax in the Mail.
Sputnik
US 04:05 30.05.2015
At least 26 people are being treated for potential exposure to deadly anthrax after samples were accidentally shipped from an Army chemical weapons facility in Utah to 18 private and military labs in nine states and South Korea.
General Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating what went wrong at Dugway Proving Ground, the Army site in Utah where the anthrax originated.
Government labs in Maryland and Virginia received the suspect anthrax, officials said. The rest were commercial labs in New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Delaware, Texas, Wisconsin and California.
"At this time we do not suspect any risk to the general public," the CDC said in a statement Thursday.
CDC spokesman Jason McDonald said four people at labs in Delaware, Texas and Wisconsin were recommended to get antibiotics as a precaution, although they are not sick. US officials at Osan Air Base in South Korea said 22 people were being treated for possible exposure.
The anthrax samples were sent last month by commercial shipping companies to labs working to develop a new diagnostic test for anthrax, the CDC said.
There have been at least two other alarming incidents at Dugway, which has been testing chemical and biological warfare weapons since it was opened in 1942.
In 2011, the facility was locked down for 12 hours because less than one-fourth of a teaspoon of VX nerve agent was unaccounted for.
The results of a military internal investigation were never released. Utah Governor Gary Herbert said in 2011 that he met with the base commander and that the issue had been resolved to his satisfaction.
Dugway came under scrutiny in 1968 when 6,000 sheep died nearby. An Army report said the nerve agent was found in snow and grass samples. But years later, an Army spokesman said the cause of death of the sheep was never actually found.
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Live anthrax sent to 51 labs in 17 states and 3 nations – Pentagon.
RT.com
June 03, 2015 18:32
The Department of Defense admitted that 51 labs in 17 states and three different countries received suspected live samples of anthrax over the course of a one-year period, and added that the number of recipients may rise as the investigation continues.
On May 22, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notified the Pentagon that one of the private lab partners had detected the growth on live anthrax on a sample that was “supposedly inactivated… we felt that it was [an] inactivate and safe shipment,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work said at a briefing on Wednesday.
“But it turned out not to be the case,” he added.
The Department of Defense said that the probe has not found any indication that the samples were sent as a result of a deliberate action or that anyone had been infected by the lethal bacteria. The agency also said there was no danger to the public from the anthrax.
The Pentagon previously said that the anthrax had “accidentally” been sent to 24 laboratories in 11 states and two foreign countries. The agency later disclosed that the three countries that received the live spores were Australia, South Korea and Canada. In the US, a lab in the District of Columbia also received a shipment of the anthrax, on top of those in the 17 states.
“The department has regularly shipped inactivate ‒ or ‘killed’ ‒ biological material to other federal and private partner labs for development of biological countermeasures,” Work said.
“So, for example, if we wanted to have a field detector kit that would tell us that anthrax was in the area, what we do is we work with labs and we work with partners who we then provide these killed spores with so that they would then be able to develop a detector that would help our men and women if they encounter such an organism on the battlefield,” he added.
As a precaution, the DoD has asked labs to stop working on those samples until further notice from the Pentagon and the CDC. The government is also in the midst of testing every previously inactivated anthrax sample ‒ 400 lots worth ‒ to ensure that it does not contain any live spores.
Navy Cdr. Franca Jones, director of medical programs for chemical and biological defense, said it takes 10 days in each case to define if anthrax samples received by labs are live or dead ones.
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall is leading the review into all DoD laboratory procedures and protocols for killing live anthrax spores. Kendall will submit his preliminary findings to Work and Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter within 30 days.
Kendall is charged with discovering the root cause of the incomplete deactivation of the samples, why the live spores were not caught during sterility testing, and identifying any systemic problems that caused the inadvertent shipments to occur. His review is separate from the CDC’s probe into DoD labs, Work said.
“I’m assembling a team of experts from the government and private sector to examine the inactivation processes. They will report preliminary findings and recommendations by the end of June,” Kendall said. “The final report depends upon the completion of the CDC’s investigation.”
The Pentagon promised to update the number of labs that received the live samples on a daily basis, as the investigation continues.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Jun 11, 2015 23:58:39 GMT -5
US encircling Russia with bioweapons labs, covertly spreads them – Russian FM.
RT.com
June 11, 2015 12:05
The US is obstructing international efforts to eradicate biological weapons, seeking to involve other nations covertly in research on weaponized diseases, Moscow charged. America’s record of handling bioweapons is poor.
The accusations of mishandling biological weapons voiced by the Russian Foreign Ministry refer to a recent report that the US military shipped live anthrax by mistake. Last week, the Pentagon admitted sending samples of the highly dangerous disease to at least 51 labs in 17 US states and three foreign countries.
The delivery “posed a high risk of outbreak that threatened not only the US population, but also other countries, including Canada and Australia. Of great concern is the shipment of bacteria to a US military facility in a third country, the Osan Air Base in South Korea,” the Russian ministry said in a statement.
It added that an anthrax outbreak incident occurred in 2001, which also involved a US military lab.
For Russia such incidents are of particular concern, because one of its neighbors, Georgia, hosts a research facility for high-level biohazard agents. The Richard G. Lugar Center for Public and Animal Health Research near Tbilisi is an undercover American bioweapons lab, a branch of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Russia believes.
“American and Georgian authorities are trying to cover up the real nature of this US military unit, which studies highly dangerous infectious diseases. The Pentagon is trying to establish similar covert medico-biological facilities in other countries [in Russia's neighborhood],” the Russian ministry said.
Moscow says the US is de facto derailing international efforts under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), a 1972 international treaty aimed at eradicating bioweapons worldwide.
“The US administration is obviously not interested in strengthening this convention. It's known that in 2001 the US unilaterally torpedoed multilateral talks in Geneva to work on a verification mechanism for the BWTC and have since obstructed their restart. Decades of international effort to strengthen the convention were derailed,” the statement said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry's indictment comes amid a wider list of accusations against the US over what Moscow sees as American violations of various international agreements dealing with weapons control, non-proliferation and disarmament.
The statement came in response to a US annual report on the issue, which accused Russia of various wrongdoings. Moscow considers such reports “megaphone diplomacy.” Such tactics aren’t aimed at resolving any differences, but instead support America's pretense to be the ultimate judge of other nation's behavior, the ministry said.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Oct 31, 2015 4:31:36 GMT -5
US bioweapons labs, billions in research is a ‘real problem’ – Russian security chief.
RT.com
31 Oct, 2015 04:25
The head of Russia’s Security Council has warned of “a real problem” posed by the growing number of US-controlled laboratories that produce biological weapons. Nikolay Patrushev estimated that Washington allocates “tens of billions of dollars” to this research.
Speaking after Russia’s Security Council meeting, Patrushev mentioned the threat stemming from biological weapons laboratories that operate on the territories of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
“There are also other problems, such as the production of military oriented biological weapons and the very large funding allocated to this,” Patrushev said. “This is tens of billions of dollars. Additionally, the number of laboratories under US jurisdiction or control has increased 20 times.”
What is more worrying is that some of such laboratories “operated and operate” on CIS soil, said Patrushev.
“This is why the problem is real,” he said.
The head of the Security Council has also mentioned the chemical weapons issue, saying that Russia will dispose of its remaining arsenal by 2020 – eight years earlier than the US.
“We are putting into practice a program to get rid of chemical weapons. Russia will dispose of these weapons by 2020. It was expected that the US will also destroy these weapons by that time, but according to today’s plans, it will carry out the disposal by 2028,” Patrushev told journalists.
In June, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the US of encircling Russia with bioweapons labs, as well as obstructing international efforts to eradicate biological weapons.
One of Russia’s particular concerns is the Richard G. Lugar Center for Public and Animal Health Research, a research facility for high-level biohazard agents, located near Tbilisi, Georgia, a CIS member and Russia’s neighbor.
“American and Georgian authorities are trying to cover up the real nature of this US military unit, which studies highly dangerous infectious diseases. The Pentagon is trying to establish similar covert medico-biological facilities in other countries [in Russia's neighborhood],” the Russian ministry said in June.
At the time, Moscow also blamed the US for derailing “decades of international effort to strengthen” the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), a 1972 international treaty aimed at eradicating bioweapons worldwide.
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